On Friday I met Isabela outside my sorority house around 1pm. I had invited her to come to "Fried Friday's," a weekly ritual that consists of all kinds of terrible treats that are fried. Friday's at the house happen to be my favorite because it is extremely fun and conversational. Considering Friday is the end of the week everyone comes to lunch to catch up, chat about weekly events, and plan for the weekend. We have a buffet style setup which was great because Isabela and I went through each item on the line, she would tell me the name if she knew it and if not I would tell her.
We sat down in the middle of the long table by some of my close friends and began introductions.We made small talk about Brazil, Isabela's favorite things to do there, her favorite things to do in America, and her favorite part so far. A few musically inclined girls then came into the dining room singing and playing guitar to practice for their upcoming gig. We lowly chattered about our music preferences and listened for a bit. I took her on a tour of the house while explaining the dynamic of a sorority. We talked a lot about the words "philanthropy" and "charity," we both love volunteering so I'm hoping we can have an outing where we can incorporate it. Once the tour was over we went to one of the populated TV rooms, we talked with some of the girls in there and watched Sex and the City. Isabela got to hear of the gossip and contributed extremely well in the conversation. I could tell she felt comfortable because she was unabashed to ask us what certain words meant. Its was really interesting to observe the way my friends and sisters would explain words. Some of of the ladies struggled in their explainations of every day words as they used a lot of hand getsures and vocal fillers, but others were naturals and gave me some great material to work with. One situation that stuck with me was when we were describing the word "boycott," my friend put the word incontext, using a very common situation and it instantly clicked for Isabela. I will definitely start using this approach more instead of using synonyms.
Isabela and I had a great second session and I look forward to the next one! We've been chatting on Whatsapp caually, especially when she has questions about words or events going on in town. We plan to go to a Halloween party this upcoming week.
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